I 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 4179 

To direct the Federal Communications Commission to promulgate regulations 

requiring material in the online public inspection file of a covered entity 

to be made available in a format that is machine-readable. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

DECEMBER 3, 2015 

Mr. BEN RAY LUJA ́N of New Mexico (for himself, Mr. PALLONE, Ms. ESHOO, 

Mr. YARMUTH, Mr. WELCH, Ms. MATSUI, Mr. MICHAEL F. DOYLE of 

Pennsylvania, and Ms. CLARKE of New York) introduced the following 

bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To direct the Federal Communications Commission to promulgate regulations requiring material in the online public inspection file of a covered entity to be made available 

in a format that is machine-readable. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fair and Clear Cam5 paign Transparency Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 


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1 (1) On May 9, 2013, President Barack Obama 

2 issued an Executive order that made open and ma3 chine-readable data the new default for Government 

4 information. 

5 (2) Open data principles are essential for trans6 parency and efficiency in government. 

7 (3) In 2012, the Federal Communications Com8 mission required television stations to place on the 

9 Internet website of the Commission certain materials 

10 in the files such stations are required to maintain 

11 and make available for public inspection, including 

12 important information about the purchasing of polit13 ical advertisements. 

14 (4) The Commission declined to require such 

15 materials to be machine-readable, deciding at the 

16 time that it was more important to get the informa17 tion online faster. 

18 (5) Machine readability is a critical component 

19 of open government and provides interested parties 

20 with the necessary access to evaluate data in a more 

21 comprehensive way. 


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1 SEC. 3. MATERIAL IN ONLINE PUBLIC INSPECTION FILE RE2 QUIRED TO BE IN MACHINE-READABLE FOR3 MAT. 

4 (a) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 180 days after 

5 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commission 

6 shall promulgate regulations that require a covered entity, 

7 to the extent such entity is required to make material in 

8 the public inspection file of such entity available on, or 

9 upload such material to, an Internet website, to make such 

10 material available or upload such material in a format that 

11 is machine-readable. 

12 (b) APPLICABILITY.—The regulations promulgated 

13 under subsection (a) shall apply— 

14 (1) to a covered entity for which an online pub15 lic inspection file requirement is in effect on the date 

16 of the promulgation of such regulations— 

17 (A) with respect to the political file portion 

18 of the public inspection file, beginning not later 

19 than the date that is 60 days after the date of 

20 such promulgation; and 

21 (B) with respect to the other portions of 

22 the public inspection file, at the same time as 

23 such regulations apply under subparagraph (A) 

24 with respect to the political file portion of the 

25 public inspection file or as soon thereafter as 

26 the Commission considers practicable; and 


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1 (2) to a covered entity for which an online pub2 lic inspection file requirement becomes effective after 

3 the date of the promulgation of such regulations— 

4 (A) with respect to the political file portion 

5 of the public inspection file, beginning on the 

6 later of— 

7 (i) the date of applicability of such 

8 regulations under paragraph (1)(A); or 

9 (ii) the date on which the online pub10 lic inspection file requirement becomes ef11 fective for such entity; and 

12 (B) with respect to the other portions of 

13 the public inspection file, at the same time as 

14 such regulations apply under subparagraph (A) 

15 with respect to the political file portion of the 

16 public inspection file or as soon thereafter as 

17 the Commission considers practicable. 

18 (c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

19 (1) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 

20 means the Federal Communications Commission. 

21 (2) COVERED ENTITY.—The term ‘‘covered en22 tity’’ means a television broadcast station, AM or 

23 FM radio broadcast station, cable operator, direct 

24 broadcast satellite service provider, or satellite dig25 ital audio radio service provider. 


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1 (3) MACHINE-READABLE.—The term ‘‘machine2 readable’’ means, with respect to the format of ma3 terial in a public inspection file, that such format 

4 supports the automated searching for particular text 

5 within and among documents, the bulk downloading 

6 of data contained in such material, the aggregation, 

7 manipulation, sorting, and analysis of the data con8 tained in such material, and such other functionality 

9 as the Commission considers appropriate. 

10 (4) ONLINE PUBLIC INSPECTION FILE RE11 QUIREMENT.—The term ‘‘online public inspection 

12 file requirement’’ means a requirement for a covered 

13 entity to make material in the public inspection file 

14 of such entity available on, or upload such material 

15 to, an Internet website. 

16 (5) POLITICAL FILE.—The term ‘‘political file’’ 

17 means, with respect to a covered entity, the file that 

18 such entity is required to maintain and make avail19 able for public inspection under section 315(e) of the 

20 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 315(e)) or 

21 under any similar requirement applicable to such en22 tity that is administered by the Commission. 

23 (6) PUBLIC INSPECTION FILE.—The term 

24 ‘‘public inspection file’’, with respect to a covered en25 tity— 


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1 (A) means the file or files that such entity 

2 is required to maintain and make available for 

3 public inspection under section 25.701, 

4 73.3526, 73.3527, or 76.1700 of title 47, Code 

5 of Federal Regulations (or any successor regu6 lation), as applicable to such entity, or under 

7 any similar requirement applicable to such enti8 ty that is administered by the Commission; and 

9 (B) includes any political file that such en10 tity is required to maintain and make available 

11 for public inspection. 

Æ 


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